Ever since Yasmin Daiha was a little kid she has always loved to write no matter what was going on. She was a synchronized swimmer back in high school and ever since then she has tried her best to pursue her career in writing whether it be with internships or working with small newspapers.

​LA ROSE

Light brown walls, striped bed covers, dark brown carpet floor. I couldn’t see much because they had a bag over my head but there were holes that allowed me to know at least where I was. I had been to this hotel before with my parents. We were on a family vacation and we made a stop for the night here. It was called La Rose Hotel. It was one of those hotels that you usually came for just a night and left the next day. It was in desperate need of a paint job and there wasn’t much around it, only gas stations and restaurants.

They pushed me on the ground, “Stay there and be quiet,” one of them said. It sounded like a woman. She ripped the bag off from over my head and my eyes were finally able to see my surroundings. It was a man and a woman well into their 30s. The woman was beautiful, tall, and she looked very stressed. She kept moving her fingers and pacing back and forth. The man looked angry. His eyebrows were furrowed and he stared straight into my eyes, not moving one muscle. The man slowly took out a knife from his pocket as he motioned for the woman to take the tape off of my mouth. “1,2,3,” the woman counted down as if that would lessen the pain I am feeling. The man put his finger to his mouth for me to be quiet, still holding the deadly instrument in his other hand. My eyes didn’t move from it once, not even when I spoke. “What do you want with me?” I said. “Well for right now we need you to be quiet,” the man said. He grabbed the tape and put it over my mouth again as I started trying to free myself of the rope they had tied around my wrists. No matter how much I tried, they wouldn’t come off. Their rough exterior rubbing on my wrists, making them burn. I winced in pain as they just watched me like a helpless animal. “Alright, enough. Come on,” he said. The man picked me up and took me to the closet. He threw me to the floor and closed it. The darkness filled the entire space. I saw nothing. I heard footsteps and a door sliding open. They went outside. I couldn’t hear much but I was able to make out what they were saying. “What are we going to do?” the woman said. “We can’t just keep her locked in the closet.” “I know. And we won’t. We just have to wait long enough till her parents find the clue we left. Hopefully this’ll make them give us the money they have owed us after all these years.” The man said “Don’t you think that this was a bit too much? Kidnapping the girl like this?” “Karen. Do you want to continue living out of hotels and fast food? Do you not want to start a life?” “Well yes bu—,” she was cut off by a loud knock at the door. I couldn’t tell what was going on, there was so much yelling and what sounded like things getting knocked over. “Where is she!” I know that voice, it was my dad. “I know you have her.” “You are right, we do. Although, we won’t hand her over until you pay us what you owe us.” The man said. “We don’t owe you anything,” dad said. “If you want your daughter back, then you need to pay us the $15,000.” There was a long silence and some movement outside of the door. Seconds later the closet door opened and the man grabbed me once again. In a swift motion, he pulled me up and pushed me towards my dad. The force almost making me fall. “Oh my god, Kayla,” my dad said. He struggled to get the tight ropes out of my wrists but eventually succeeded. He took off the tape with one movement, making a wincing around himself, as if he knew if hurt me as well. Before we could say or do anything else we realized that the man and woman had disappeared. The only thing that was left in the hotel room was the pain of what had happened. ​